River Visit
by esthermarie
Summary: Chihiro walked down to the river and dropped in yet another shoe. Maybe this will bring him back to me, she thought to herself.


**A/N: Okay, so I was reading some of the ChihiroxHaku fics last night and they were all depressing. I like how mine turned out. And I apologize if I got her age wrong. But I think I'm right give or take a year...enjoy. Oh, my rating is just for preacaution. Anywho...this is a one shot...maybe...depending on if people like it or not. I don't know for sure yo!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything:D except for the homeless man who's name is Todd.**

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Chihiro walked down to the river and dropped in yet another shoe. _Maybe this will bring him back to me. _She thought to herself as she watched the shoe travel down the river where she lost her first shoe. As the shoe bobbed back and forth, under and above; she heard footsteps approach.

"Haku!" she called out with a smile as she spun around.

"No, sorry," the homeless man said as he walked along the river bed collecting cans, and anything else that he could turn in for some cash.

Chihiro sighed and sat down on the river bank. It had been ten years since she went into the spirit world with her family. Ten years and she never saw Haku. She remembered his promise. He said he'd return. But he never did, this was like a promise from her parents. They promised her things they could never give; quality time, and love. She got things she never wanted, computers, cell phones, money, and clothes. No, she wasn't complaining she just wanted things to be like they were when she was nine, when she met Haku.

Tears were falling down her face she wiped them away and let them roll into the river. Maybe her fluids would bring him back. She watched the river and waited…waited…she wasn't sure why she was waiting; she had done this for ten years, every Sunday she waited nothing ever changed.

The wind picked up and blew her waist length brown hair in front of her face. She brushed it back behind her ear and let more tears fall down her face. She loved him from the first time she learned to swim in _his_ river to the first time she saw him in the spirit world when he tried to help her across the bridge.

"Haku, I'm _never_ coming back. I know I threaten you with this every Sunday, but I mean it this time. I'm going off to college tomorrow, in America. I don't want to, but I'm getting away from everyone here in Japan, and from you memory. I'm hoping to find someone there who loves me in return. I will love you, and will love no one as much as I have loved you.

"You know I'll feel really stupid if you're being held in the spirit world. Once again under Yubaba's clutches. I'll feel even worse if you're wounded, or dead. But it's been ten years. It took me a while to find the river at my new house. But with help I found it. I've waited and waited for you. You don't care or something. I don't care anymore," she said as she was kneeling in front of the river, her reflection showing her grown features and her emotionally scared face and heart.

Chihiro kissed the water's surface, stood up and left the river with tears streaming down her face. She wiped them away, _Ten years of tears is plenty, too many, superfluous._ She thought to herself as she headed to her home to finish packing her bags for her move to America.

"I'm home," she said as she walked into her house and took off her shoes.

No one answered her; she would have been more surprised if she would have received an answer. She went up the stairs to her room and looked around her walls to see what she wanted to take to remember her life here in Japan.

Her life only became difficult the months following their move to this house. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that her parents were pigs for a short amount of time, and their stubbornness had come out ten fold while they were pigs. Or if it was the fact that they saw the change in Chihiro when she neither heard nor saw Haku. She wasn't really in the mood to care about this.

While rummaging through her desk she found a poem that she had written about Haku. It made her smile, she wrote it when she was eleven; eight years ago:

_We first met when I was young._

_Our meeting became real some years later._

_You saved me and my parents._

_I saved you and wanted nothing more than to be with you._

_I love you, and will love you always._

_Never will I find one who can bewitch me to look for them._

_Never will I find someone who can care about me like you did._

_I'm your, forever and for always._

She cried when she read the last line she didn't know that her love was so powerful even when she was so young. She placed the poem in a box along with some other things that reminded her of him.

"I'll take these to the river before I leave tomorrow," she thought to herself as she placed the box atop of her desk and went to the kitchen to get something to eat.

"Chihiro, where did you go today?" her mother asked.

"Where I go every Sunday mom, to the river," Chihiro said while looking through the fridge.

"Why do you go there?" her father asked.

"Why do you two care now?" Chihiro asked slamming the fridge shut with her apple and water bottle in hand.

"Because we love you," her father said putting down his news paper.

"No, if you loved me you would have cared and asked me questions about where I was when I went there the first time for twelve hours! Not now, not the day before I leave for college. You can't do it, I'm sorry I won't take this, I won't take your false affections," Chihiro shouted as she turned and went up to her room and closed the door.

She ate her apple and stared at the box that was sitting on her desk. She wouldn't be able to wait until tomorrow; she'd go tonight…now. Chihiro grabbed the box, and headed for her door and walked down the stairs and out of the door.

Chihiro walked down the familiar path and came to the same fork in the road. Instead of taking the right path, she decided to go to the left. She couldn't understand why, she just had a feeling. Halfway down the trail she was immediately regretting the choice, but continued anyways.

She came to the river side and sat down on the bank. She looked into the river and saw the stars reflection on the surface. She set the box down on her side and took off her shoes and stuck her feet in the water.

"Haku," she whispered as she decided to go swimming in the river.

She stripped her clothes off and went into the river. The water was cold as it hit her naked body. She didn't care as she dove into the water.

_If you really are the spirit of this river, then I'll see you while I'm in here, and you'll feel me. Whether you're here or somewhere else, you'll feel me._ She said to herself as she continued to swim down the river. She resurfaced moments before her lungs felt like they were going to explode.

"I thought you said you weren't coming back?" a voice called to her.

"Look, I don't know why you homeless people are so creepy, but leave me alone, if you can't tell I'm going through something here," she said as she turned around and headed back to her clothes.

"I'm only homeless because you said you were moving on, you kicked me out of your heart Sen."

Chihiro froze when she heard her name—her _other_ name—she turned around and looked at the stranger.

"Haku," she whispered again as she stood up and ran to him.

"Chihiro," he said as he held his arms open and held her close to him.

Chihiro held on to him afraid that if she let him go he would disappear from her again. Tears were streaming down her face and soaking his clothing.

"Don't leave me," she whispered to him as she looked up into his face.

"I won't ever leave you again," he said as he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. She was shocked but kissed him back, her arms wrapping around his neck.

He pulled back and looked at her eyes. He saw the love that he knew was there despite her harsh words from before.

"I love you," he whispered to her as he kissed her again.

He held her body as he slowly laid her body down on the ground. He placed her head on the ground and began kissing her neck.

"Haku, take me with you. Take me back with you to the spirit world," she begged as she pulled his head off of her.

"Chihiru, if I take you, then you can never return to your family and friends," he said to her as he kissed her collarbone.

"I don't care, I just want to be with you," she said to him, letting him kiss her body.

"Alright," he said as he lifted himself up off of her and sat down next to her.

"Thank you," she said as she stood up and headed back to her clothes. She got dressed and grabbed the box and walked back.

"What do you have?" he asked her.

"Oh, I was going to place this in the river and leave it for you," she said handing it to him.

"What's in it?" he asked her as he grabbed her hand.

"Poems, pictures, little things that I have found that remind me of you," she said blushing.

"I love you," he said to her again.

"I love you too," she said to him as she kissed him.

"Oh no, you stopped me earlier, you'll just have to wait until we get home," he said to her as he stood up and lifted her up with him.

"Home, that sounds nice," Chihiro said as she walked with her love to their home.


End file.
